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PANEL TALK: Taking care of your staff – understanding the 5 pillars of employee wellbeing in the workplace

PANEL TALK: Taking care of your staff – understanding the 5 pillars of employee wellbeing in the workplace 900 675 Growth Partners

We joined a panel of experts at The Great British Business Show to discuss the importance of wellbeing in the workplace. Our CEO of employee services Scott Read took part in the discussion offering guidance on how to support your employees’ mental health and wellbeing and the importance for your business. 

Scott joined fellow panellists Andrew Snowball from Money Life Balance, Dr Thomas Schroeck from The Natural Gem and Jan Smolaga of Action Challenge Ltd to answer the following questions… 

How do you think office culture influences employee engagement and wellbeing?

THOMAS: The culture of the company is very important for the employees. We give the right spirit and the right thinking to our employees. We treat them well, and with respect. I would say it enhances their quality of life and the quality of their work. We have a setting which is pleasant for everybody, and we keep the distances between employees very thin, so everybody’s reachable. We have a culture of not criticising failures but improving personal behaviour, asking people to improve and change, and this always works in a very positive way. So coming back to the question, I think culture significantly influences the well-being of the employees. 

ANDREW: I agree with Thomas. It’s important to have a progressive culture within an organisation. I think it’s also important to remember that there’s a lot that makes up an individual’s wellbeing. It’s not just the workplace environment, but it’s the home life and the economic situation. So, when working on the business’ engagement and culture, it’s important to have a broader understanding of your staff members. To get that engagement, you need that understanding on an individual level, what motivates them, and what stresses they may have. That’s become abundantly clear with the pandemic and people working from home. It is important to understand that it’s part of a bigger circle in terms of their personal wellbeing, social wellbeing, mental wellbeing, their physical wellbeing, and their financial wellbeing. 

JAN: I agree with both of you. I think the question, how does office culture affect employee wellbeing actually makes up two separate things. You can’t measure employee wellbeing, but the office culture shows you. So, they’re more interconnected than two separate things, they independently influence each other.  

SCOTT: Just to expand on the answer, I think, so many businesses think about the culture within the business without thinking about employee engagement and wellbeing, whereas I don’t think you can separate them. I think the same drivers that you would use to drive a positive culture within the business are the same drivers you should be using to look at how you engage with your employees, how you focus on their wellbeing and they in turn feed into a positive culture.

Ultimately, the key levers for me are around communication, leadership, compassion, understanding, and knowledge. I think, if you looked at that from a culture point of view, you would focus on it, but you might not necessarily look at all of those things if you weren’t focused on employee engagement. I think, too often, it gets missed because you focus on a culture – how many businesses have an employee who said “oh the culture in our organisation is great” but actually nothing is being done for either engagement and wellbeing. And I think there are missed opportunities for dozens of businesses out there to really think about the same strategy, but different strands of the strategy. 

JAN: It’s like you say, Scott, office culture comes from the top down, but it also comes from the bottom up, as Andrew said. It’s led by the employees, their home life, and what’s going on outside of the office. Companies will focus on benefits like free lunches, which is great, but if people aren’t engaging with that, then it’s a waste of endeavour.

THOMAS: The culture within a company should enable the people to develop. It’s important to ask employees where do you want to go; this is both a personal and professional question. I’m a massive fan of people developing inside the company. I want to understand our employees’ vision so I can help understand where they want to go, what areas they want to develop and how we, as a business, can provide them with what they need to succeed.

JAN: What you’re measuring for workplace culture is the symptoms, not the culture itself. If you’ve got good retention, team cohesion, and productivity, they’re all symptoms of a positive workplace culture.

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How can you measure your workplace culture? Can you measure if it is improving over time?

SCOTT: For me, with everything, whether it’s office culture or employee engagement, you have to have a strategy for what you are trying to achieve. If you understand the type of business you want to be and the type of culture you want to set, it’s much easier as a starting point. So many cultures find businesses by accident because one or two leaders within the business almost drive it accidentally. Whereas I would certainly advocate that for smaller, new businesses, it should be part of their strategic thought process in the first place. In terms of how you measure it, what you’re trying to measure is intangible, and if you’re a new start-up, you’ve not necessarily got that base mark to compare it against.

Where it becomes a strategy that you enhance overtime, you’ve got more measurable statistics than you realise, in terms of your staff churn rate and what productivity was looking like a year ago before you implemented the strategy. They become the base marks, but ultimately, they might not show you a massive difference in what you’ve achieved. You may have achieved huge things beyond that, just in terms of the way people feel or feel supported. It’s difficult to get to, but one of the key things is when you’ve got a workforce that has opportunities to go and earn more money, doing a similar job elsewhere, but they’re still with you; that’s probably the most successful and tangible result you can see.

JAN: What you’re measuring for workplace culture is the symptoms, not the culture itself. If you’ve got good retention, team cohesion, productivity, that’s all symptoms of a positive workplace culture.

With a workforce that is becoming more hybrid and more remote, what have you found that has worked well in keeping up that level of engagement with your employees and their wellbeing? 

JAN: From my own experience, it’s nice having that flexibility, but, time with employees whether that’s physically in the same place or whether it’s socially over zoom or anything like that can work. Our client base over the last few years has been so hungry to get their teams physically in the same place, to do something together, whether that be a challenger event like a trek or walking up a mountain or doing a mastermind day to get them away from the pressures of work. That’s one way to do it if budgets allow it.

SCOTT: I’m not going to lie; it’s been one of the biggest challenges we’ve had in the last 12 months. The one thing I will say is, you can’t please everybody all the time, no matter what you try and do. The biggest technique you can have is your ability to listen and be prepared to be flexible. One of the biggest challenges I’ve found was how do you keep what I class as that photocopier moment, whereby there’s that moment of opportunity where something gets discussed on the fly, and actually it becomes quite an important part of the business. I’ve found that when people are working from home, we all operate much more on a to-do list basis; therefore, having that conversation at the photocopier becomes something on your list rather than a moment of opportunity. We’ve tried to find a balance with our hybrid working and allow employees to work more flexibly, but we’ve also tried to put in days where we encourage everybody to be in the office.

You then obviously need to look at social interaction and what forms of communication you have to try and ensure the dialogue doesn’t dry up because I think for all the businesses that talk about hybrid increasing productivity, there’s a mirrored version where productivity drops, which isn’t quite as popular to talk about if we’re completely honest, but I think it’s a reality. So it isn’t easy, and it’s something that we’re still working on perfecting, but the only way we perfect it is by the feedback from the employees. 

ANDREW: Talking from a personal experience, what we’ve found that works is regular contact, whether that’s once or twice a week. But, as the other alluded to, being able to listen and being able to adapt is key to being able to support the employee.

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For companies with micro managers, how do you ensure they are looking after their employees’ wellbeing and following the company’s culture?

SCOTT: For me, it comes down to the leadership right at the top of the organisation. The only way you will instil it is if it becomes one of the key KPIs that every manager in every department has to focus on because it’s the only way it will remain on their to-do list of things they need to focus on. Ideally, you don’t want employee engagement and leadership on a to-do list; you want it to be part of the innate culture that develops naturally and that you develop with your people over a period of time to improve progression within the business. Unfortunately, so many people get lost in their to-do lists because they’re easily forgotten.

So the only way is to ensure every department and manager has an engagement/people focussed objective as one of their key objectives. Measuring can become a management nightmare, but you have to embed it at least; otherwise, it just won’t happen consistently. 

JAN: From Action Challenges point of view, we are quite a small business – we have 15 full-time employees. The benefit of that means that director level is directly exposed to the staff, sitting amongst them or on the same open plan floor. The downside of that is director level is exposed to all the staff! You get a really quick indicator of the mood but it also means that some staff will hold back.

How much do you focus on financial wellbeing? What do you do to enforce it within your business?

SCOTT: At this moment in time, financial wellbeing is the hot topic out there from a wellbeing perspective, but it needs to be put into context; you need to have a strategy for all elements of wellbeing. I’m not a big believer that you pay a person more money and assume you’ve done your job. I think it’s about education. I think it’s about understanding not just the education of how things work but how people can access the right advice, the best advice, independent advice and understand the content in which you are providing that support as a business; there’s no business benefit to you it’s purely what’s the right thing for your employees. Therefore, a lot of the work that needs to be done is around trust in the first instance because you can talk about wellbeing in the other areas, and people will trust that you’re looking after them.

When you start to talk about finances, there becomes a little bit more distrust that there must be something in it for the business, and that’s why you’re trying to encourage it, so currently, it’s a really topical and challenging solution, there isn’t one strand to it that will fix it, but it’s trying to let people know first and foremost that you understand the challenges that they’re under and you’re trying your best to support them and go to the right experts across the marketplace that can support your staff much better than you can. The bit that I would link and why I’m reluctant to just talk about financial wellbeing is that billions of people out there will be having emotional challenges due to financial wellbeing challenges that they’re not prepared to face yet. Therefore, it becomes part of a wider strategy rather than just one strand.

THOMAS: I think it’s a very important part of our work. In my company, we usually overpay by about 20% – this is one thing to attract the right people or attract interesting people and give them some convenient living level. The challenges I see now are the increases in inflation and the increase in costs. We are having discussions with the management team at the moment about how we want to deal with this going forward because we can see that bills such as gas have increased from £200-£300 to £800-£900. This is an inflation point that isn’t seen in the official figures. This is one part; the other part is how we can help people progress in their life in all areas. We have a programme where our employees can approach us and tell us, I want to do a university course, I need Fridays off to accommodate my studies, or maybe they want help financially to fund the course, which often we will support. We also offer communication courses to improve their communication ability and always try to be a good example for such a way of thinking.

ANDREW: Full disclosure, we’re a financial advice company – one of the core activities we carry out is financial planning and helping people with financial management. I agree with Scott in that the focus isn’t just on finances because it is about the emotional and the physical, but speaking from not having control or understanding of where you are with your finances can have a detrimental impact on your emotional and mental wellbeing.

One of the things that businesses can do is start off by educating, that’s not necessarily taking on a financial advisor or planner, but it is bringing in the independent expertise to start talking about structure and basic financial plans to help them have some control in their life.

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People are often promoted based on their technical ability and put into leadership positions without people management skills. If someone has the right technical skills but lacks the skills to manage on a day-to-day basis, are they the right person for the job? 

SCOTT: I think, and I hope, that this is something that is slowly moving out of successful businesses. I believe that if, for a long period of time, you’ve built employee engagement and people skills into people’s objectives, then hopefully, you’re going to promote them into that key position because they’ve achieved those objectives as well as the technical or commercial ones. You’ll find that the businesses that still – and I’m probably going to offend people here – but businesses that play at employee engagement and employee wellbeing are the ones that will continue to have challenges. When people have a clear strategy and a clear job description, then actually, the best candidate for the job isn’t the person with the best technical skills; it’s the person with the best all-around skills. 

JAN: From the perspective of a small organisation, relatively flat and wide in terms of structure, that’s less of an issue. We have a pretty good internship scheme where we bring people in, they can try a few things, and we’ve got the flexibility that if someone takes on a role if their promoted to a management position and it doesn’t quite work out, we’re able to quite flexibly move them across. I think, the larger an organisation gets, the more difficult because the structures are quite rigid.

What is your view on where an employer’s responsibility starts and stops when looking after the wellbeing of your employees?

SCOTT: I would have a slight question or clarification on the term ‘responsibility’. I think responsibility is quite a harsh word. If it’s about what level of support a business should provide its employees and where that starts and stops, my answer would be that it doesn’t start and stop. It’s completely continuous, whether it’s inside of work or outside of work. Businesses need to realise that what’s affecting the wellbeing of the employee in any aspect of their life will transmit through to what they see at work, and that’s what you see from genuinely the health of someone, right down to the impact it’s having on your productivity. So, it doesn’t matter if they are in physical tip top condition, because actually someone in their family might not be and that’s having an impact on their thought process, it still is your responsibility, in my opinion as an employer, to try and support them. 

JAN: Yeah, I agree with that. Top-down it is the company’s responsibility to provide the framework for that employee’s wellbeing to grow. Still, the employees are responsible as well for what they’re bringing. Obviously, you have got to be aware of what’s going on. I’ve just started a family, so through that, you have to consider, paternity leave, and flexibility, and sometimes they get sick and you have to take time off. So, there’s an awareness of that, but employees have to take some responsibility also, which is where they fill in that framework that the company provides.

THOMAS: The employee is an individual and completely responsible for themselves. We, as an employer, open up a framework. We offer different things; flexibility, a good salary, and benefits. But ultimately, it’s all down to motivation; is the employee willing to work with us? They are free to choose to go somewhere else if the framework is better. So, for me, it starts with having a self-responsible individual in front of us. The motivation and how they work for us is their obligation. Our obligation is to provide a good framework that helps to develop them

SCOTT: It’s the first time someone’s going to disagree slightly. While I understand where Tom comes from, my view is somewhat different. The reason I changed the word from ‘responsibility’ to ‘support’ is that it becomes difficult to be responsible for every aspect of an employee’s life. However, we all employ people with the knowledge or the belief that they’re the right person for our organisation. So, at one point, we believe that they had the right motivation, the right skills, and the right desire to be able to do the job. Now, we’re not always right. We’re proven to be wrong more than we would like to, right? However, if we still believe that they’re the right person, it’s just as much our responsibility to support them to get the best out of them.

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What health incentives do you think are important to improve the staff’s overall wellbeing?

JAN: We do active challenges where people can work together outside of the office. On the face of it, you get a HR manager saying it will be fun to get people out of the office to do a marathon or a walk. What they actually report, and this was based on 200 of our past clients that we spoke to, the main thing they got out of it wasn’t that it was ‘fun’ it was that there was better staff retention, increased wellbeing, good PR for the company and they happened to fundraise a bit of money for charity. There are always extended benefits to doing that kind of thing. Whether it is an organised event or a physical challenge, it just needs to take them out of the day-to-day environment to use the mind and body differently. We’ve found for our clients that it’s transformational for so many businesses.

THOMAS: We try to set a framework that provides employees with benefits such as gym memberships, good food, a healthy environment, medical advice, and private health insurance for all employees. That is the framework that we follow.

ANDREW: This isn’t really our area, but I imagine what would work would be analysing what is important to your employees – looking at things that they find challenging in their personal life, whether that be losing weight or giving up smoking, and then having programmes in place that the employer can support. This could even be supported with a financial reward if an individual is able to complete a programme successfully.

SCOTT: I think for me, there’s a dozen of these exhibitions in the UK that you can go to and go down a tick list of things that you can put in place in your organisation that will, in theory, be health incentives to try and drive a greater level of wellbeing. However, I still think the most significant impact and influence on wellbeing is what the culture is in the organisation in the first place. If you can encourage a wellbeing culture as part of your strategy that provides people with the knowledge, experience, and access to all the different things you can buy and integrate, that itself is a start. I think one thing that so many businesses miss out on is that if an employee doesn’t know where to go and get the level of support, whether it be financial wellbeing, emotional wellbeing or physical wellbeing, the chances of them getting the help they need is almost zero!

So as business leaders, and as people who run businesses, it is important to ensure our employees know what we offer and how to access it. Without that knowledge, they simply won’t access it and get the help they need and support they need if they have to do a stage first, which is to go and ask someone how to get access to it. So, for me, it’s a knowledge and education piece that’s the key driver. Other than that, there are a dozen things you can buy off a shelf that will help improve, in theory, the health of your employees. 

More support and information

You can read more about Scott’s thoughts on employee engagement and the key to retaining staff or download Scott’s five-point-plan to drive employee engagement.

If you would like help creating an employee engagement strategy, speak to our business growth experts who will be happy to help. You can also read more about our SMART Employment model or book a demo of our all-in-one solution to help make employers’ and employees’ lives easier, happier and healthier here

Scott Read Growth Partners discusses the link between employee engagement and retention

Scott Read Growth Partners discusses the link between employee engagement and retention

Scott Read is a results-driven business leader with a proven track record in helping employers strategise key business growth through employee engagement.

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Chancellor’s Autumn Statement 2022: How does it impact pay and pensions?

Chancellor’s Autumn Statement 2022: How does it impact pay and pensions? 1920 1280 Growth Partners

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s 2022 Autumn statement focused on prioritising stability, growth and public services but what does this mean for your employees’ pay and pensions?

The chancellor announced that the tax take from his fiscal statement will increase by just 1% over the next five years, and still ensure the UK maintains the most generous tax-free allowances of any G7 country. The thresholds and allowances previously announced for the highest earners however are set to change.

The chancellor was somewhat muted on the pensions front, with the only mention being the reinstatement of the state pension ‘triple lock’.

What are the key tax changes, what is the ‘triple lock’ and how does it affect the state pension?

How will the tax changes affect employees?

It’s good news in relation to tax bands for low earners – they haven’t been reduced so the income tax personal allowance is frozen at £12,570 until April 2028. Only employees earning more than this will pay tax and, of course, they will only pay tax on anything above £12,570*

*For higher earners, the £12,570 personal allowance will be reduced by £1 for every £2 of ‘adjusted net income’ earned between £100,000 and £125,140, again frozen until 2028.

The basic rate tax band will remain the same until 2028. For higher earning employees, the threshold for the 45% additional rate tax will be cut from £150,000 to £125,140 from April 2023.

Unlike the state pension however, the tax thresholds have not been increased in line with inflation.

What is the triple lock?

Introduced in 2010 by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, triple lock guarantees that, each year, the state pension will rise by whichever rate is the highest of either:

  • Average earnings
  • Inflation – as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), or
  • 5%

As an example, if average earnings rose by 3% and inflation rose by 5%, then the state pension would be increased by 5%.

Why was the triple lock system introduced?

The triple lock was introduced to protect pensioners against the impact of inflation on money.

If the state pension didn’t increase at least in line with inflation, then you wouldn’t be able to buy as many goods and services with your pension as you did before.

Why was the triple lock reinstated in the Autumn Budget 2022?

Following the coronavirus pandemic, average wages were rising by over 8%, and sticking with the triple lock rules would have meant the state pension would also need to rise by 8% – an unprecedented increase which the government never saw coming!

As a result, the government announced the suspension of the triple lock for the 2022-23 tax year to ensure fairness between pensioners and taxpayers.

Retention of the triple lock was a Conservative Party manifesto commitment and has been the topic of much debate over affordability recently, however, in his 2022 Autumn Statement, the Chancellor confirmed that the triple lock will be reinstated from April 2023.

This means that, for the 2023-24 tax year, the state pension will rise in line with September’s inflation rate (10.1%) a formula outlined in the state pension triple-lock guarantee. For some people, the state pension will be worth over £10,000 next year!

In conclusion, this may be good news for some employees in relation to their pay and pension but as inflation rises, so does the cost of living. As an employer, it’s important to be aware of the changes and the potential impact on employees, not only financially but emotionally too.

Employees can check their income tax with their Government Gateway ID on the GOV.UK website

Employees can see how much state pension they’ll get and when using the GOV.UK State Pension Forecast

For more information about unburdening your business from payroll and pension compliance visit our SMART Employment page and read more about supporting your employees’ financial wellbeing, emotional wellbeing and physical wellbeing.

Amrik Birdi, Pension Consultant at Growth Partners

blankAmrik has a wealth of knowledge in pensions having joined Growth Partners from KPMG where he was responsible for advising companies and trustees on independent DC provider procurement exercises, DC investment strategy review, DC pensions strategy review, automatic enrolment compliance, and meeting ongoing governance requirements. Amrik spent three years before this as a Pensions Guidance Specialist at Pensions Wise helping members understand their pension and retirement options, empowering them to take control of their retirement journey. With a Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning and Certificate in DC Governance, combined with a Degree in Economics, Amrik is a fully qualified pensions consultant and able to offer strategic support to our clients on their options for workplace pension schemes and auto-enrolment.

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RETIREMENT: How do you know if you are financially on track?

RETIREMENT: How do you know if you are financially on track? 1340 1006 Growth Partners

A simple three-step guide: estimate, calculate and plan

Deciding how and when to retire is one of the most significant life decisions. Longer life expectancy, volatile investment markets, ever-changing regulations, and the various options for withdrawing your pension can make retirement seem understandably daunting.
On top of this, the concept of ‘retiring’ is open to interpretation: for some, retirement plans involve spending time with family, holidays abroad and home renovations. Others might consider working part-time and pursuing phased retirement, or prioritising a lifelong hobby or passion.

 

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Our simple three-step guide: ‘estimate, calculate and plan’ will help you prepare for your retirement, whatever your plans may be.

 

ESTIMATE

Estimate your annual cost of living. Future expenses can be hard to predict; you can reach a ballpark figure by doing the following:

  1. Review your current regular outgoings (household expenses, travel and leisure, mortgage/rent payments)
  2. Subtract any expenses you no longer expect to have in retirement
  3. Consider any anticipated/planned expenses (travel plans or replacing a car, for example) or future costs that may come up

Various online calculators can help you estimate your total annual living costs. The budget planner from the government’s MoneyHelper website is one such example.
An alternative way to estimate your cost of living in retirement is to use ‘The Retirement Living Standards’ by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. This guide forecasts what retirement life may look like based on three annual income categories:

 

blankSource: Home – PLSA – Retirement Living Standards

 

CALCULATE

Calculate your retirement pot – it is important to consider all sources of income when approaching retirement. You will need to factor the following into your expected pension pot:

  1. State Pension – most people will be entitled to a government-provided State Pension from age 66 (rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028). To check how much State Pension you can get and when you should expect to receive it, you can visit Check your State Pension forecast – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and follow the online instructions.
  2. Workplace Pension – check how much you have accumulated in your workplace pension through your employer.
  3. Other Pensions – check how much you have accumulated in private pensions or pensions established under different employers. If you need to find contact details for a lost pension (workplace or personal), you can visit Find pension contact details – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and follow the online instructions.
  4. Other investments – you should also consider other forms of income down the line, for example, individual saving accounts (ISAs), investments (including property rental income) and any potential inheritance.

 

PLAN

Plan to reach your retirement goals – this is a two-step process. Step 1 – Once you have totalled up your savings and various sources of income, it’s time to estimate your expected income.

  1. Pension income – there are various pension calculators available online that can estimate the income you’ll get when you retire. You can use MoneyHelper’s pension calculator by visiting Use our pension calculator | MoneyHelper and following the online instructions.
  2. Investment income – various investment calculators are available online to help you calculate what your investments will be worth in the future. It’s best to use the investment calculator of the provider with whom you have invested.

This will then help you project the value of your pension and investments when you reach retirement age.
Step 2 is to determine whether these projections match your estimated annual cost of living.

Don’t worry if your initial projections don’t match your estimated annual cost of living in retirement. There are various options available to you. Working with a financial advisor or retirement planner can help you develop a plan that aligns with your retirement goals. To find an advisor near you, please visit Match with your professional adviser | Unbiased.co.uk.

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Retirement target and improving pension member engagement

Retirement target and improving pension member engagement 1920 1281 Growth Partners

It’s now becoming a cliché to write that people aren’t engaged with their pensions, or that members don’t feel connected to their pensions. However, as with all cliches, there is an element of truth – Aon’s DC pension and financial wellbeing employee research 2021 shows that 71% of the people surveyed have not set a goal for how much they need to save before they can retire, and 87% are expecting a shortfall in retirement income.

So why are people not engaged with their pensions – the key source of income that will provide for them once they have finished their working lives? Here are some of the typical responses from members:

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How has the industry responded to improving member engagement?

Pension providers have responded by developing and/or revamping ‘tools’ including pension apps, modelling-tools, ‘micro-sites’, personalised videos and video annual benefit statements, to name just a few. Pension providers in the UK have also responded by offering more pension investment choices (outside of the default option) or lower charges to make their proposition more competitive.

A Pension Paradox

The pension industry’s response seems to have created a pension paradox. We understand member engagement with pensions is low – we know possible reasons for low member engagement – pension providers have developed solutions/tools in response – but member engagement is still just as low!

Missing piece to the puzzle to drive engagement with pensions – Target

We believe the pension paradox exists because there is a missing piece to this jigsaw – a Target. The reason why members don’t engage with their pension is because, while members are given access to a host of ‘pension tools’ from their pension provider, none of them explicitly help members to set a target for their retirement, especially in a way which resonates with them.

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According to a survey by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), 70% of savers say that targets would help them save more. By target, we mean a target retirement income level. Take the PLSA’s Retirement Living Standards: pitched at three levels, this can guide members to target precisely what their retirement could look like (and retirement costs). Help members set a target, via financial wellbeing workshops and sessions, and make the pension target really personal, and member engagement could suddenly look very different. This can also help members see if they are on track to live the retirement they envisage, and if not, what they can do ‘now’ to bring them back on track.

Although the responsibility lies with the employee, there’s still a big role employers can play to help employees achieve a retirement worth having – and as pension specialists we’re here to help.

Do you need help with your pension engagement from pension specialists?

To find out more about how the team of pension specialists at Growth Partners can help you with your pension member engagement, please feel free to get in touch with us today.

You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have – Zig Ziglar.

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National wage increases – what is the financial impact for SMEs?

National wage increases – what is the financial impact for SMEs? 501 360 Growth Partners

On Wednesday 27 October, increases to national living wage and national minimum wage were announced as part of the Budget 2021. The increases affect all businesses in the UK employing lower-paid workers and apprentices. 

 

The announcement comes at a time when inflation is set to rise to 4%, the number of job vacancies hits a record high and the UK unemployment rate sits at 4.5%. 

 

So, what is the impact for SME owners employing workers and what can you do to reduce the financial impact on your business?

 

 

Increase in National Living Wage

The national living wage is the term given to the minimum wage an employer must pay a worker if they’re aged over 23-years-old. Before the budget, national living wage sat at £8.91. The Budget announcement on 27 October set out plans for increasing national living wage from £8.91 to £9.42 on 1 April 2022.

 

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Increase in National Minimum Wage

As part of the Budget, it was also announced that national minimum wage for workers aged 21-22 years old and apprentices will increase. From 1 April 2022, if you employ an apprentice who is aged 16 and over and not in full-time education, you must pay them a minimum of £4.81 an hour – an increase of 51p an hour. If you employ any workers aged 21-22 years old, from April onwards you must pay them a minimum of £9.18 an hour – an increase of 82p per hour. 

 

How will the national wages increase impact SMEs?

A mandatory increase in wages and national insurance contributions will always impact the bottom line for SMEs. Coupled with rising inflation, skills shortages, and challenges in the supply chain at a time when businesses are recovering from a pandemic, these increases in overheads can be hard-hitting. 

 

Changes to national minimum wage and national living wage will not only impact those paid at this rate but may also require pay adjustments to others such as supervisors and managers to ensure pay differentials are not eroded.   

 

This is the perfect time to look at your costs as a business and understand where you can save or where you may not be getting the best value for money. 

 

The cost of payroll is an area of your business where you need to invest carefully – ensure you are working with payroll experts that are fully compliant with HMRC and The Pensions Regulator. Taking shortcuts with payroll and pension processing could lead to heavy fines and more financial pressures on your business. 

 

If the person or company processing your payroll and pensions is found not to be compliant with ever-changing government regulations, you the business owner will be held responsible. 

 

Now is a good time to check your payroll software automatically detects whether someone is due to fall below the minimum wage. This will help you now, but also in years to come as younger workers transition through the various age thresholds. 

Action point:
Look at your payroll and pensions processing costs. How much are you paying each month and what assurances do you have when it comes to compliance? By switching payroll providers, you may be able to save enough to offset the rising salary costs. Take a look at our 6 Things to Consider When Outsourcing your Payroll checklist to help.

 

How do you retain employees to help avoid recruitment costs?

With employment vacancies at a record high, while inflation is rising, it can be a difficult time for employers to retain staff. And once you pay to source good staff and invest time in their training you want to keep them. Not only to keep recruitment costs low but to grow your business too. 

 

Don’t be too concerned if you can’t compete on salary. In a recent survey, CIPD reported 50% of candidates voted organisational values as the most important factor when considering a company to work for. 44% of respondents agreed pay and benefits are the second most important factor, followed by career development opportunities and flexible working. Did you also know, that 88% of millennials will pick culture over a salary when choosing an employer to work for? 

 

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With this in mind, it’s important to consider the other ways you attract and retain staff – think what other benefits you offer to employees which they value highly and keep them engaged. 

Action point: 

Reassess your employee engagement strategy, if you have one. Our five-point plan will help you consider what will drive an uplift in engagement and help keep staff for the long term. 

 

What options do businesses have when costs increase?

If the national wage increase is set to hit your business hard, it might be time to look at your approach to staffing. Can you do more with less? Can you find smarter ways of working? Should you look at cross-training as a way of upskilling current staff instead of employing more? 

 

Did you know there are a range of employment grants available to SMEs which may be worth considering if increasing staffing costs will prove to be an issue?

 

If you employ low-paid workers, you may find the government’s Kick Start Scheme is relevant for your business. The fully-funded scheme is designed to provide meaningful employment opportunities to unemployed 16-24 year-olds and as their employer, 100% of the national minimum wage or living wage is paid for you, as well as associated national insurance contributions and auto-enrolment pension contributions. What’s more, you could even get a grant of up to £1,500 to help with setup and training costs. In return, you offer work placements that are a minimum of 25 hours per week for a six-month period. The scheme closes to new applications on 17 December 2021. However, if your application is accepted you have until 31 March 2022 for the young person to commence their role.

 

Another option to consider is Government-funded apprenticeship schemes, which contrary to popular belief are available to anyone over the age of 16, not just school leavers. Again, funding is available to pay for apprentices and their training – how much is dependent on the size of your company and your annual pay bill. A £2.7bn investment to improve the apprenticeship scheme was announced as part of the Budget 2021 alongside an enhanced recruitment service by May 2022. Find out how much funding your business could be entitled to here. 

 

Action point
Read through our 12 Alternatives to Redundancy to reassure yourself and your senior management team of the different strategies available to mitigate against rising employment costs.

 

Our all-in-one solution

We offer a fully outsourced payroll and pensions service for SMEs – we also take on full responsibility with HMRC and The Pensions Regulator, offering complete peace of mind for your business. In addition, we provide a range of benefits, wellbeing, and employee engagement services to help you look after your valued employees, reduce turnover, and ultimately grow your business. 

Read more about our SMART Employment model here or book a free, no-obligation demo here.

Businessman Writing and Using Calculator
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P6 Tax Code Notice: What employers need to know about an employee’s P6 tax form

P6 Tax Code Notice: What employers need to know about an employee’s P6 tax form 1368 912 Growth Partners

At intervals throughout the year, it may be necessary to change your employee’s tax code, and a P6 tax code notice from HMRC will usually be sent to you when it is time to do this for the individual.

These changes to United Kingdom payroll tax can occur for a variety of reasons, the main ones being:

  • An employee’s tax-free income, or personal allowance, has either increased or decreased
  • A new employee has provided you with a P46 and HMRC inform you of the correct tax code
  • You have sent new tax codes for your employees at the beginning of the tax year

 What is a P6 tax code notice?

Issued by HMRC, a P6 form provides new details of an employee’s tax code to their employer, such as previous pay and tax.

A P6 is a form issued by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to employers to provide details of an employee’s tax code, previous pay, and tax.

Should you receive a P6 tax notice from HMRC, you must check and/or change the respective employee’s tax code and, if applicable, enter previous pay and tax.

How do you get a P6 from HMRC?

P6 tax code notifications are now sent online as opposed to the traditional paper form. This can help employees to keep on top of requests and ensure everything is accessible in one easy place – your HMRC gateway.

Does a P6 override a P45?

In most cases, a P6 form will actually override a P45.

For example, if you take on a new starter who joins without a P45 as they have not yet received it from their previous employer, but they fill in a new starter checklist instead, the P6 will override the P45, even if it eventually becomes available at a later date.

This is because a P6 is issued by HMRC and is therefore considered more up to date and relevant than a late P45.

Do you need help handling your employee tax code changes?

The team at Growth Partners have many years of experience helping businesses to deal with tax code notifications, ensuring all matters are dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Simply contact us today to find out more about our services and how we can help you to change your employee’s P6 tax code as per HMRC requests.

Employer discussing with employee
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12 alternatives to making redundancies

12 alternatives to making redundancies 1920 1280 Growth Partners

Unpredictable customer demand and uncertainty feel very much a part of everyday life at the moment. For many businesses, staff costs are the single largest expenditure, so balancing spend against output is a key consideration – particularly in sectors where the order book is a lesser-known quantity, and the topic of redundancies is never too far from the agenda.

Many businesses may find themselves looking at what they need to do to adapt and help to safeguard their future. This is no mean feat.

So what can you do to reduce costs and avoid a situation where a headcount reduction via redundancy is necessary? First let’s start with options.

12 Alternatives to Making Redundancies

  1. Compulsory holiday
  2. Overtime ban
  3. Career breaks
  4. Unpaid leave
  5. Lay-offs
  6. Short-time working
  7. Recruitment freeze
  8. Natural attrition
  9. Flexible or part-time working
  10. Cross-training
  11. Policy changes
  12. Pay cuts or pay freezes

1. Compulsory holiday

You can ask staff to take holiday in downtimes which not only helps control work distribution but also assists the operation during busier periods by ensuring a full headcount is available. This hopefully also means the need for overtime is minimised.

Be careful how this is applied though.  If there is minimal leave to take later in the year, burnt out staff can be a real problem as they are not as effective and it could result in unwanted turnover.  As one of the most highly prized employee benefits, limiting the scope for personal choice in how annual leave is used may have a devaluing effect. Mandated leave is also likely to impact the cost and location of a holiday, or whether the employee is able to spend that time with friends and loved ones.

Ensure correct notice is given to take holiday – either follow contractual terms or your company policy. In the absence of this, the general rule is that notice twice as long as the leave to be taken should be given i.e., two weeks’ notice to be given for one weeks’ leave.

 

2. Overtime ban

Stopping non-contractual overtime is simply a matter of transparent communication.

People will be more likely to understand and buy into this measure when you are specific about which areas of the business this applies to, why and the timeframe.

However, if this is contractual or if you suspect this might be considered contractual through what is known as “customer and practice” i.e., clear history of this being used or with known rules etc, it will be necessary to agree this prior to application, and it is advisable to get any agreement to vary this term in writing.

 

3. Career breaks

Career breaks are arguably more practical for larger organisations or for those with more senior employees who are more likely to have larger savings pots to rely on.  Nevertheless, don’t make assumptions!   You are unlikely to know the ins and outs of personal finances so remember to offer to all.

Career breaks allow people to remain an employee, but they agree to receive no pay during the career break.  It’s a matter of policy whether they continue to receive other benefits, such as company car, health care etc.

If you are considering this, a top tip is to reserve the right to turn down volunteers to avoid a situation where it negatively impacts key parts of the operation.

 

4. Unpaid leave

It usually takes a few weeks to a month to see the benefit of this option in reducing wage costs.

In all cases it’s necessary to get the employee’s agreement, so better to ask for volunteers in the first instance.

This is a good short-term measure which may suit both parties while also protecting employment.  While not legally required, it’s best practice to put any agreement in writing.

Employer discussing with employee

5. Lay-offs

Laying off staff is when an employer takes an employee off work and off pay for at least one working day. Effectively it’s sending the employee home temporarily. It’s used as a response to a lack of work, and again, an alternative to making redundancies.

There is a statutory scheme for laying off staff, but a lay-off clause in the employment contract is required in order to implement this. That said, if you have no existing contractual right, you can ask people to agree to this.  Often if the employee knows this is a last resort and that more permanent solutions, such as redundancies, may need to be considered they are more likely to understand and accept this course of action.

Invoking a lay off is a specialist area of HR and we would advise you seek professional support if considering this.

6. Short-time working

Short-time working is similar to lay-offs, but rather than providing no work, the employer provides some work. So, in effect is reducing employees’ working hours.

As with lay-offs, an express clause in the employment contract is required in order to implement short-time working. If you have no existing contractual right, you can ask people to agree to short-time working.

Employees who are put on short-time working or lay off are entitled to pay on the days they do no work at all. This is called statutory guarantee pay and is the legal minimum an employer must pay.

Statutory guarantee pay is £30 a day for five days in any three-month period. Employees who usually earn less than £30 a day will get their usual daily rate.  The maximum an employee is entitled to is £150.

If an employee works part-time, their entitlement is worked out in proportion to their part-time hours.

Employees can however apply for redundancy and claim redundancy pay if they’ve been laid off or put on short-time working and receive less than half a week’s pay for:

  • four or more weeks in a row, or
  • six or more weeks in a 13-week period

So, while this can be a very low-cost solution, it really is a last resort before needing to commence compulsory redundancies.  Equally, the specific rules and criteria above can be quite complex to navigate, particularly where larger groups of the workforce are involved.

It is therefore always advisable to seek professional advice if you are considering this option.

 

7. Recruitment freeze

By applying a recruitment freeze no additional costs are added to the pay bill but care in application is required, as a blanket ban is a fairly blunt tool.

Critical positions which service customers or those that are a key source for chasing debt or generating higher levels of demand are likely to still be needed. So while hiring during difficult times might initially seem counterintuitive, it may be vital for you to stay afloat.

If budget is really tight, consider the potential of redeploying people from one area of the business to another.  Time spent recruiting could be better spent retraining and upskilling existing employees. Also, continuing to invest in workforce skills is a far more powerful message so don’t miss the opportunity to communicate this.

 

8. Natural attrition

Natural attrition is the term for voluntary leavers from a business over the course of a year.

Over the past few years, UK turnover has sat around 15% per annum though this varies hugely dependant on sector. So, if you are planning to strategically downsize your business, would you consider cutting more than this percent of your workforce?

If you don’t feel confident about the number and reason for leavers in your business, then establishing your natural attrition rate is certainly data you need to know to help make a more informed decision.

Allowing attrition to happen organically should be considered one of the least risky options and removes the angst around more compulsory options.

However, by not backfilling roles it may mean heavier workloads for others. It also means you have far less control in determining where job losses take place.  Explaining why you are not backfilling and recognising the bigger workloads for the team, will at least show you have weighed up all the options.

Also bear in mind, movement in the jobs market has slowed as people take a more cautious approach during these uncertain times.  So, if action is needed now, it might be prudent to consider other options.

 

9. Flexible or part-time working

For many, one of the benefits the pandemic has brought is a reprioritisation of personal and social lives.  Coupled with the fact many employees have now by necessity experienced a range of flexible working arrangements, perhaps due to self-isolation, childcare or other needs.  Flexible working options such as part-time, compressed hours, varied start and finish times now feel much more achievable.

Just as views on where people prefer to work have altered, so have perceptions around the amount of time needing to be spent focused on work.

Again, don’t make assumptions here, you may now have a much greater pool of people who would consider this suitable for them.

Business discussing options

10. Cross-training or multi-skilling

As mentioned above, a recruitment freeze is preferable to entering into a redundancy situation. However, you might still need to cover certain tasks, and cross-training or multi-skilling your existing employees could help.

Bear in mind it’s a perfectly legitimate expectation that by increasing knowledge and skills, multi-skilled employees become more valuable,  so you should expect some form of recompense may be needed.

Again, think about the low-cost solutions.  The pandemic has certainly taught us that flexi-time, hybrid or home-working can work.  Failing that, a future bonus or incentive if certain performance targets or outcomes are met is perhaps another carrot to help get buy-in for this option.

 

11. Policy changes

Some company policies are contractual or have become contractual over time through customer and practice. Key ones to look at here are sick pay, overtime, redundancy, expenses, and training.

If these are no longer viable due to the costs involved, discussions with your employees are helpful (even if not legally required), so they understand why the change is necessary and feel included in the decision-making process.

Being open and honest about alternatives i.e., salary cuts or potential job losses will also help people to contextualise the predicament.  The principle of prioritising other areas first to save money, rather than electing for headcount reductions, is hard to disagree with.

 

12. Pay cuts or pay freezes

You will need express consent from people to implement a pay cut. Otherwise, you risk a breach of contract and unlawful deduction of wages claim.

If you can’t persuade people to agree, you can give notice to end the existing contract and rehire on new terms.  This is a dismissal in law so dependent on the employee’s length of service, there may be a risk of an unfair dismissal claim.  But as long as there is a sound business reason (as judged by a reasonable employer) this is likely to be deemed as what’s known as a “some other substantial reason” dismissal, which can be a valid reason for ending employment (see section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996).  Again, where unpopular measures are being considered, think about sweetening the deal in some way – working from home, flexible start and finish times are often highly prized by employees.

As this option will only offer a future saving, short-term immediate measures may also need to be considered in conjunction with this, if cashflow is particularly precarious.

 

How to approach redundancy with employees

Now let’s talk about approach.  It goes without saying meeting your legal obligations is the minimum that’s required.  But how these options are handled could be the difference between success and failure.

Being well prepared with facts and data, as well as approaching things with honesty and transparency is a good starting point.  You’ll get far more acceptance and understanding where you level with your employees.

It’s also important to note, none of these options come without some form of downside.  Whether that’s an immediate negative impact on morale or potential for creating turnover among some of your best talent further down the line – particularly if things don’t return to previously experienced levels.

Putting yourself in their shoes will help you anticipate likely questions and should enable you to present a clearer picture of what needs to change and why, without glossing over the impact on individuals.

Sufficient details such as when and how long for, will also help add reassurance measures are temporary, rather than a full-scale shift in culture/policy or watering down of the employee offering.

Finally, there is a balance to be had between being transparent and unsettling people.  If adopting any of these measures will genuinely prevent future job losses, then say so.  If on the other hand it is more hopeful optimism before inevitable job cuts, a more dogmatic approach may be required.

About the author

Claire Antony Growth Partners

Claire Antony HR Business Partner at Growth Partners

Claire holds a depth and breadth of experience in HR, having operated in standalone roles supporting senior leaders, as well as leading HR/payroll teams, operating at Board level. Working across a variety of sectors, from micro businesses to multinational blue-chips, Claire is passionate about finding solutions to help businesses succeed in their goals.

Business growth solutions

When you’re investing time into running your successful business, it can become difficult to keep on top of everything. Contact the team at Growth Partners today to find out more about our all-in-one solution for payroll, pensions, benefits, wellbeing, and employee engagement services.

To chat to Claire Antony about this topic, email claire.antony@growthpartnersplc.co.uk or call 0116 340 3116

Hand Placing Payroll Lettering on Wooden Background
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13 of our most commonly asked payroll questions: answered

13 of our most commonly asked payroll questions: answered 1413 886 Growth Partners

The world of HR and payroll continually changes, leaving many business owners with a multitude of questions.

Luckily, as experts in all things payroll, we’ve answered some of our most commonly asked questions, hopefully shining a light on any issues you may be facing yourself with your own managed payroll.

  1. What form do I need to complete if we stop SSP, but the employee is still off sick?

If you stop SSP when an employee is still off sick, you should complete an SSP1 form and send it to the employee. This will help them claim employment and support allowance.

  1. What is classed as a linked period of sickness?

A linked period of sickness is when an employee has regular periods of sickness that last four or more days each, separated by less than eight weeks, which have lasted for longer than three years. In this case, SSP will stop.

  1. When can I stop paying SSP? 

The maximum amount of SSP is 28 weeks. Additionally, If an employee has had continuous series of linked sickness that has gone on for more than three years, you no longer have to pay them SSP.

  1. What should I do when an employee’s tax code is wrong?

Usually, for new employees, if they haven’t completed a new starter checklist, their tax code will be wrong.  The new starter checklist is a HMRC form which all employees should complete on their first day of employment.

  1. My employee insists they have paid too much in deductions – what do I do?

Many employees don’t fully understand the payroll legislation for both Tax and NI and when this becomes payable. It is your responsibility to explain the process to them and clearly show them that they have in fact paid the correct amount in deductions.

We provide our clients’ employees with a dedicated customer service team to help explain all pay documents and any deductions over live chat, email or phone.

  1. Why has an employee not been enrolled into the pension automatically? 

Auto-enrolment is based on age and earnings. All employees are automatically enrolled after the 3-month postponement period if they meet the qualifying criteria (age 22 and earn over £10000).

  1. How do I opt an employee out of the pension scheme?  

Under The Pensions Regulator rules, it is up to the employee to complete an opt-out form which they must get directly from the pension provider. You cannot opt an employee out on their behalf.

Please note, rules around SSP and payroll are different for some workers, so you should always refer to the latest advice on GOV.UK.

Transferring your payroll 

  1. Does a transfer of payroll providers need to take place at the start of a tax year?

No, you can transfer payroll providers at any time without any disruption to payroll.  However, depending on who you choose to outsource payroll to, it may cost you more if you choose not to transfer at the start of the tax year. This is because some payroll providers will be required to recreate your whole payroll since the start of the tax year. This will take time and therefore increase your costs.

You can outsource your payroll to Growth Partners at any time of year without disruption to payroll and without any set up costs.

  1. What is a Real Time Information Pay ID?

The RTI Pay ID captures your company’s employee reference. You enter this when you set up a new employee on your payroll. The Full Payment Submission (FPS) must be sent on or before payday and an Employers Payment Summary (EPS) must be submitted by the 19th of the following month to avoid fines from HMRC.

  1. What’s involved in transferring payroll providers?

If you transfer payroll providers at the start of the tax year, employers need to send the new payroll provider a list of all current employee data along with salary details. If you transfer providers at any other time, your payroll provider will require a lot more data from you regarding previous salary payments.

However, you can transfer payroll to Growth Partners as part of SMART Employment model at any time with minimal data.

  1. What’s involved in transferring payroll providers to a PEO model? 

When you are transferring payroll providers and the HMRC liabilities as part of the PEO model, you need to send the new payroll provider a complete list of all current employee data, along with salary details. You also need to ensure employees are set to ‘leavers’ in the old payroll and produce a P45 for each of them. The P45s are not sent out to employees – they are sent to the new payroll provider only.

  1. How long does it take to transfer payroll providers?  

Depending on the size of the business and the complexity of the payroll, it can take between one to two weeks for small to medium businesses, and up to four to six weeks for larger businesses.  Some payroll providers may require longer than this – particularly if you wish to transfer your payroll midway through a tax year.

  1. Do I need to contact HMRC if I change payroll providers?

You do not usually need to contact HMRC if you change payroll providers. However, if you wish to outsource your payroll to specialists like Growth Partners who take on the HMRC responsibilities for you, then you will need to complete a year-end submission.

The year-end submission will confirm to HMRC that you have closed your old PAYE. This is usually done via an EPS submission once you have processed your final payroll. You will also need to confirm the cessation date on the submission.

Payroll business solutions

When you’re investing time into running your successful business, it can become difficult to keep on top of everything. By outsourcing your payroll, you can reduce your costs and save essential business time, allowing you to focus on areas that are important to contributing towards your continued growth.

Contact the team at Growth Partners today to find out more about our all-in-one solution for payroll, pensions, and employee engagement services.

Employee engagement key to retaining staff
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Employee engagement – the key to retaining staff

Employee engagement – the key to retaining staff 1920 1280 Growth Partners

I was recently asked by one of our clients, where does the link between employee engagement and retention begin? And what role will employee engagement play in retaining staff in the future? My answer really was simple, the key to retaining good staff is having a solid employee engagement strategy and this is why…

Employee engagement factors

Where is the Link Between Retaining Staff and Employee Engagement? It is easy to understand that happy, engaged staff are inclined to be loyal to their employer and be less inclined to leave but Gallup takes this a step further defining actively engaged employees as “loyal and productive.” By investing in employee engagement, not only can a company experience low employee turnover rates but they can reap the benefits of increased productivity too.

It is a common myth that employee engagement is about retaining staff once they’ve proved their worth and so often we see business leaders choosing to invest in their employees once the company is established and only once they need to enter the growth stage. I disagree with this approach entirely.

The key to staff retention starts with the very first interaction. It is a crucial stage for both the employee to share their excitement for the role and the company to gain commitment and buy-in before they even join. This stage in the recruitment process is the bedrock of long-term working relationships.

How engaged are employees in the UK?

According to a study by Qualtrics, approximately half of the workers in the UK are engaged. That puts us in sixth place on the list of countries with the highest engagement rates. The European country with the highest engagement rate is France at 55%.  Companies that effectively turn feedback into action have an 80% employee engagement rate and highly engaged teams sell 20% more than teams with low engagement.

The UK’s average employee turnover rate is approximately 15% a year. Burned-out workers are 2.6 times more likely to look for another job and burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day.

High staff turnover, burn-out and sick days all significantly affect a companies’ bottom line and growth potential.

What role will employee engagement play in retaining staff in the future?

Employers need to take action now if they want to attract talent and retain staff going forward. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the working environment forever – it not only brought uncertainty for many businesses but also a huge burden of responsibility for their employees. From implementing remote working, to finding new ways to communicate on-top of the decision of when and how to utilise the Job Retention Scheme.

Now is the perfect time for business leaders to step back and look at their approach to employee engagement. It’s time to update their employee engagement strategy or start to create one. By investing in employee engagement, it is clear that companies can reduce turnover rates and reduce costs while also increasing productivity and therefore business growth and be in a better position to weather any future storms.

What next?

If you need help creating an employee engagement strategy, speak to our business growth experts. You can also read more about our SMART Employment model or book a demo of our all-in-one solution here

Scott Read Growth Partners discusses the link between employee engagement and retention

Scott Read Growth Partners discusses the link between employee engagement and retention

Scott Read is a results-driven business leader with a proven track record in helping employers strategise key business growth through employee engagement.

6 Ways to Grow Your Business
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6 Ways to Grow Your SME | Business Growth | Growth Partners

6 Ways to Grow Your SME | Business Growth | Growth Partners 1800 1200 Growth Partners

As the East Midlands’ employee engagement specialists, we’ll be running an employee engagement seminar at the next region’s largest B2B expo. The exhibition, which is being held in Solihull in November, is designed to support companies to grow and prosper.

More than 500 business owners are expected to attend the Midlands Business Expo on Friday 26 November to meet organisations providing services to help them grow.  As part of the free event, we’ll be holding a seminar to help business leaders grow their business and increase employee engagement.

The 6 Ways to Grow Your SME Through Employee Engagement seminar will be led by our CEO of Employer Services, Scott Read, who is a results-driven business leader with a track record in helping employers strategise key business growth through enhancing employee engagement and communication. The seminar will explore the link between employee engagement and business growth, giving you six takeaways to implement within your organisation immediately.

Scott Read Growth Partners speaks at Midlands Business Expo

Scott Read Growth Partners speaks at Midlands Business Expo

Scott Read said:

“We’re looking forward to meeting business leaders from across the region to talk about their plans for business growth. We know so many SMEs have exciting plans to grow, after what’s been a tough 18 months and we welcome the opportunity to be able to help with their journeys. With the right direction, focus and commitment, employee engagement can genuinely drive positive returns in staff retention, productivity and profitability.”

There will also be an opportunity to chat to a business growth consultant at our exhibition stand and arrange a free employee engagement consultation.

The 30-minute seminar will take place at 10am on Friday 26 November at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull.  You can register for your free ticket through the Midlands Business Expo website

Midlands Business Network November 2021

As an employee engagement company, we’re on a mission to help make employers’ and employees’ lives easier. You can book a free demo of our all-in-one solution for payroll, pensions, benefits, wellbeing and employee engagement services here.

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